Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works will become two separate publicly traded companies
The shares of L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB) are down 3.3% to trade at $66.52 at last check, after the retail name announced it is splitting into two publicly traded companies -- Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret. The split, which will be completed in August, comes after L Brands decided not to sell its lingerie brand. Additionally, the company posted an upbeat first-quarter revenue outlook.
Just yesterday, the security hit a five-year high of $71.35. Shares have been tearing up the charts over the past 12 months, with support from the 80-day moving average, which contained the equity's January pullback. Year-over-year, LB sports a whopping 477.2% lead.
Analysts are still split towards L Brands stock, with nine of the 17 in coverage carrying a "buy" or better rating, while eight carried called it a "hold." Plus, the 12-month consensus price target of $68.30 is right in line with current levels, indicating LB may be overdue for a round of price-target hikes and/or upgrades.
Additional tailwinds could come in the form of a shift in the options pits. This is per the stock's 50-day put/call volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which stands higher than all but 2% of readings from the past year.
Echoing this, L Brands stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.65 sits in the elevated 85th percentile of the equity's annual range, meaning short-term option traders have rarely been more put-biased.